Just placed an RMA for a WD Drive. Will they send the same exact model?

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crewxp

Limp Gawd
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Jul 27, 2009
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I just placed an RMA for my first failing WD drive. $220 hold, holy crap!

Anyways, the model is an older model and the current WD Black series have a new revision. My model had issues with movies freezing and data pauses when reading. I was wondering if they replace RMA drives with an exact same model or if they replace it with a newer model or maybe an upgraded model.

Does anyone have any experience with this?
 
Yes they replace with exact same, yes they replace with newer model, yes they replace with upgraded model. Depends what they have on hand,
 
Since you're doing an advance RMA you'll probably get a new drive, for every one I've done in the last year I've received a HDD with a manufacture date of 2-3 weeks earlier.
 
RMA'd 3 2TB EARS drives in the last few weeks. The first one, I got back a 2TB EARX, ok fine. Two weeks later, I RMA two together and receive 2 2TB EFRXs... All three were new drives and I did advanced replacement.
 
It is a crapshoot. I always do advance replacement and usually get newer models of the failed drives. Sometimes I even get bigger drives. My best so far was that I had to replace a Black 1TB and got a 1.5TB, I then had to replace that same drive 3 weeks later and got a 2TB. The only consistent factor is I always get re-certified drives.
 
Does anyone have any experience with this?
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I think we all have.

They'll usuall send a new/larger/updated unit but it will be a refurb.

Good Luck!
 
With WD Blacks that I've purchased retail and had to RMA (two different drives) they sent me back retail drives as RMAs.
 
I've had mixed results.

2tb green, replaced with new 2tb green.
1.5tb black, replaced with new 2tb black.
1.5tb black, replaced with new 1.5tb black.
1tb green, replaced with refurb 1tb green 4k
1tb green 4k, replaced with refurb 1tb green 4k

So far, except for the 4k replacement for a 512b drive, have been very happy.

seagate on the other hand, always replaced with a refurb for me, and the refurbs have never lasted me >2months, in 3years those disks spend more time in the mail than in my system.
I know it wasn't my system, cause it has ran with wd's fine, and also, those are just a few disk out of a larger set, and the rest of the set that didn't fail, have lasted 6 years now, without an issue, in the same system the refurbs would always fail.
 
patrickdk said:
....
seagate on the other hand, always replaced with a refurb for me, and the refurbs have never lasted me >2months, in 3years those disks spend more time in the mail than in my system.
I know it wasn't my system, cause it has ran with wd's fine, and also, those are just a few disk out of a larger set, and the rest of the set that didn't fail, have lasted 6 years now, without an issue, in the same system the refurbs would always fail.
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I RMA'd 5 Seagate HDs last year, 3 came as a "new drive" with "refurbished" label where has colored border on the label. I check those 3... the drives was a brand new :D
the last 2 were refurbished drives.
those drive are running ok on my ZoL backup server.

those failed drives had 5 years warranty and crapped out mostly 1-2 months before the warranty expired.

I always make sure that all my HDs get good airflow :)
 
. I check those 3... the drives was a brand new
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How did you tell that? For the 10+ Hard Drives I ship off each year to Seagate's Texas facility I do not remember ever getting a new one back.
 
Some of you guys are really lucky.

I've never received anything but refurbs from any company....including SSDs.
 
drescherjm said:
How did you tell that? For the 10+ Hard Drives I ship off each year to Seagate's Texas facility I do not remember ever getting a new one back.
Click to expand...

you check om S.M.A.R.T info on ( can search on the net):

0x04 Start/Stop Count , A tally of spindle start/stop cycles.
The spindle turns on, and hence the count is increased, both when the hard disk is turned on after having before been turned entirely off (disconnected from power source),
and when the hard disk returns from having previously been put to sleep mode

0X09 Power-On Hours (POH), Count of hours in power-on state. The raw value of this attribute shows total count of hours (or minutes, or seconds, depending on manufacturer) in power-on state.

3 drives are newest model were shiny and no scratches. with less than 5 Start/Stop Count and POH is minimal

2 drive are older models with some scratches, with some many Start/Stop Count :|...

The Label say refurbished.
I am doubtly those 3 Drives are refurbished, They just send available Drives, when the refurbished stock are depleting, they would slap refurbished label to new drives <--- this is just my observation..
 
patrickdk said:
seagate on the other hand, always replaced with a refurb for me, and the refurbs have never lasted me >2months, in 3years those disks spend more time in the mail than in my system.
I know it wasn't my system, cause it has ran with wd's fine, and also, those are just a few disk out of a larger set, and the rest of the set that didn't fail, have lasted 6 years now, without an issue, in the same system the refurbs would always fail.
Click to expand...

This has always been my problem. Over the last 10-15 years with pretty much all of the HD vendors I've seen massive amount of "refurb" drives fail very early on.

At this point I've almost given up on it. Generally if a drive fails I toss it and just buy a new one.

Edit:

OP generally speaking the drive I've received is the same capacity although sometimes I get larger. As far as model goes I'd say at least most of them were not the same.
 
I am doubtly those 3 Drives are refurbished,
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Maybe the drives failed out of the box or they were in external cases that failed?

I highly doubt they would take a new drive and put a refurb lable on it. That makes no sense.
 
Old Hippie said:
Maybe the drives failed out of the box or they were in external cases that failed?

I highly doubt they would take a new drive and put a refurb lable on it. That makes no sense.
Click to expand...

Not Doubtly on my perception. Those drives are running on my back zol server without issues 10 months as now.

Unless. They reset all non volatle memory that keep smart data
 
1.5TB black to 2 TB black. I lost about 5% of data but it was worth it.
 
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